By Erik Schmidt: Undefeated heavyweight contender Alexander Dimitrenko (28-0, 18 KOs) struggled tonight in the process of stopping Puerto Rican Derric Rossy (18-2, 10 KOs) in the 5th round of a scheduled 12-round bout for the WBO Inter-Continental heavyweight title at the Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle, in Stuttgart, Baden-Wurttember, Germany. Dimitrenko, 25, ranked # 2 in the WBO, had an extremely hard time landing any punches for most of the bout against the awkward Rossy. Dimitrenko appeared to lose the first three rounds mostly due to his failure to let his hands go.

Finally, in the 5th round, Dimitrenko’s power bailed him out, as he landed a big left hook the head of Rossy, dropping him to the canvas. After getting up, Rossy was immediately knocked down once again by a short left hook from Dimitrenko. After the action resumed, Dimitrenko came after him and landed a flurry of short chopping punches, most of which missed badly. However, a couple of them landed, enough for the referee Paul Thomas to step in and halt the fight at 2:58 of the 5th round. Rossy looked as if he could continue but the way that Dimitrenko was now attacking him, there was little doubt that Rossy would soon by visiting the canvas once or twice more in the round if it were to have been allowed to continue a little longer.

In the first round, it was basically all Rossy as he charged forward with his head down, looking a lot like John Ruiz and a mini Rhino at the same time. While coming forward, Rossy would often lead with a jab, which would keep Dimitrenko from getting his own shots off. Instead of sidestepping Rossy’s charges, Dimitrenko would mostly grab a hold of him and wrap him up in a clinch. In the past, Dimitrenko had proven to be an excellent inside fighter, reminding me somewhat of a young Riddick Bowe with his use of uppercuts. Against Rossy, however, Dimitrenko did essentially nothing when in close other than just hold and wrestle much of the time. For this, Dimitrenko received frequent warnings from referee Paul Thomas. All in all, Dimitrenko did nothing other than three a couple of left hands that weren’t thrown with much conviction.

At the start of the 2nd round, Rossy landed a hard right hand body shot, causing Dimitrenko to wince in pain and turn around and bend over, as if it were a low blow. However, the punch was clearly above the belt and nowhere near to coming close to being low. The referee wasn’t buying Dimitrenko’s acting job and told him to continue fighting. Rossy continued landing well well with jabs and right hands to the body of Dimitrenko. For his part, Dimitrenko did nothing other than clinch constantly while throwing nothing in return. It was strange the way that he was failing to let his hands go, for in the past Dimitrenko had always been very active in his fights. Against Rossy, however, Dimitrenko seemed confused, not knowing what to do with his style of fighting.

Dimitrenko looked equally bad in the third round, missing a high number of sloppy looking right hands. His accuracy couldn’t have been worse if he closed his eyes and threw his punches, because he was missing virtually all his punches in the round. He did have one decent exchange halfway though the round when he landed a short right hand while backing up, followed by left-right combination. Beyond that, he mostly clinched as always, holding on and getting warnings from a now very frustrated looking referee Paul Thomas. Rossy continued to dominate, using his jab and right hands to the head of Dimitrenko. After the bell sounded, Dimitrenko landed a perfect right uppercut to the head of Rossy. Unfortunately, the punch was well after the bell and didn’t count. Most of Dimitrenko’s shots were the slapping variety and looked bad for a fighter ranked as high as he is.

In the 4th round, Rossy suddenly looked very tired, as if he had hit the wall in terms of endurance. At one point after being separated from yet another clinch initiated by Dimitrenko, Rossy turned his back and started walking slowly, with great effort to get in position to fight. The referee then had to warn Rossy to turn around and not leave himself vulnerable. Seeing how tired Rossy looked, Dimitrenko finally attacked for the first time in the fight and landed a couple of punches, but missing a handful of others. Dimitrenko then began to maul Rossy, constantly yanking him forward in a wrestling move, something that Dimitrenko would do to try and get Rossy out of position so he could land a few punches while he was off balance. It looked more like a street fight move and nothing like a professional boxing style, and Dimitrenko quickly found himself warned by the referee about this. Dimitrenko continued to do this a couple more times, and then finally out of frustration he pushed Rossy to the canvas. Most of the clean shots were landed by Rossy in the round, but given his exhausted look – likely from all the wrestling from Dimitrenko – I gave the round to Dimitrenko by a narrow margin. It was boxing at its worst, reminding me a lot of a typical Ricky Hatton fight.

In the 5th round, Rossy looked in better shape and continued to control the fight, landing a high number of left hands and jabs to the head of Dimitrenko. However, a fraction of a second after being separated from yet another clinch, Rossy was nailed by a big left hook from Dimitrenko, which hurt Rossy and sent him backwards onto the canvas. He didn’t expect a punch coming out of a break, and I don’t blame him because most fighters are warned about hitting on the break. However, since Dimitrenko was the hometown fighter in Germany, he received no warning and the knockdown stood. After getting up glassy-eyed, Rossy vainly attempted to fight back but was immediately dropped by another left hand from Dimitrenko. Surprisingly, Rossy staggered to his feet and the fight was allowed to resume, despite all indications that it should have been stopped at that point given the bad condition of Rossy. Upon the action being resumed, Dimitrenko came right after Rossy, throwing his trademark chopping punches and missing most of them quite badly.

Of a approximately 10 punches thrown by Dimitrenko during this brief attack, only two connected, a left and a right hand. The left hand had the effect of snapping Rossy’s head back violently as if in a whiplash. Seeing this, the referee stepped in and halted the fight with Rossy still on his feet and looking as if he could continue fighting.